29 Responses

Very briefly, Twitter has decided that it wants to bring the location function back within its control. It should allow for some interesting work, but again raises the age-old internet question of just how much information you want to put out there.

Twitter appears huge in Indonesia, looking at the global mashup there. But a great many of those words are simply common words like 'child' and 'not', so perhaps their algorithim isn't working very well. Still interesting

All the same, it wouldn't surprise me. Indonesia was the fourth largest Facebook user earlier this year, on the back of only 35m internet users. The internet penetration there is growing very rapidly, on account of mobile devices. Ethan Zuckerman observes that the world is getting online, but traditional computing devices are making up a decreasing share.

Well, I tried Twitter for about 6 weeks but gave up on quite readily. Too much small talk, when there is already a surfeit of it around. Maybe I was just following the wrong people but then I have never been much of a follower.

Well, I tried Twitter for about 6 weeks but gave up on quite readily. Too much small talk, when there is already a surfeit of it around. Maybe I was just following the wrong people but then I have never been much of a follower.

Such is the hype about Twitter now (guilty, I know) that new users' expectations have been unreasonably raised. It took me a while to work out a shape for my Twitter use, but I really value it now.

I'd urge you to try again, Geoff -- I'd certainly follow you if I knew you were there, because you know stuff. It'd also drive Kiwi Boomers traffic.

Just be parsimonious and choosy about who and how many you follow. I definitely prefer to enjoy my contact with a selection of people than sign up for a deluge, and people who tweet every 15 minutes don't get followed.

It's interesting that you note the dutiful adding of hashtags to tweets about fashion week. As a friend of mine pointed out, the disorganisation of the protest movement against the Pittsburgh G20 is such that they have five or six different hashtags in use, and key organisers (like, say the legal helpline for protesters) aren't using any.

As a result, the G20 isn't really trending, and if it does it will be all the residents of Pittsburgh complaining about the protests that get seen, and not the protesters themselves. Massive fail, really.

Just as an aside: any official or semi-official news on who is playing at Big Day Out 2010? There was an impression abroad that they were making the first announcement this week, but there's been no word.

According to a message from C4, there is an announcement due next Tuesday.

I used Twitter back in 2007 for a couple of months. It was sort of useful but I didn't find it engaging enough to want to make it a part of my daily activities. Sometimes it is nice to remain a passive consumer of information than a contributor.

Not 100% sold on the way the trends are visualised on TrendsMap. It's hard to tell if "my city" of London is just gabby (probably!) or if the rest of the South East is talking too.

Speaking of the G20, I didn't entirely get Twitter until last April Fool's Day when I found myself inside the police kettle at Bank. Twitter was a really useful way of sharing my displeasure with the world and for getting news on what the police were doing in the hours I was trapped.

As a friend of mine pointed out, the disorganisation of the protest movement against the Pittsburgh G20 is such that they have five or six different hashtags in use, and key organisers (like, say the legal helpline for protesters) aren't using any.

"Young people these days. All tweeting and shit. Never a thought for just occupying something and getting themselves dragged off on national TV. Hashtag that bitch!"

Just be parsimonious and choosy about who and how many you follow. I definitely prefer to enjoy my contact with a selection of people than sign up for a deluge, and people who tweet every 15 minutes don't get followed.

Absolutely. I only follow about 60, many of them run quiet much of the time. Bit of an arse though, as my thing about keeping numbers down means I'm probably missing out on gems from some my more recent followers.

Dumped almost all of the internationals & "big names", and very nearly all of the boring-as-fuck Wellington twitterers, keeping only a few friends-who-have-moved-there on the list.

I don't care too much about people who toot every 15 minutes though, as I find all of the people I follow to be at least moderately interesting.

"Young people these days. All tweeting and shit. Never a thought for just occupying something and getting themselves dragged off on national TV. Hashtag that bitch!"Ahem.

The thing is that the very worst shit tends to go down when the big obvious TV cameras aren't there. (Strangely enough.)

Many of these new technologies tend to work pretty great on mobile phones. (Which in turn tend to be light and robust enough to be carried during protests.)

Not all about twitter of course, but things like stickam/twitpic get this stuff out there RIGHT NOW. It doesn't matter if the phone or camera is later smashed (or "confiscated"). It's too late to cover shit up.

It's all better for everyone, the protestors get a more effective, tightly run event (assuming the organisation pulls finger out), the media get a bunch of extra amcam/etc material to work from, and the police get to weed out the few officers that fuck things up for everyone. Win-win.

And, possibly the most important point: you don't need a group to make a protest that people actually hear about.

The internet penetration there is growing very rapidly, on account of mobile devices

which is even more surprising when one considers both the appalling speeds and ludicrous prices that the self protecting elite, those 1 or 2% that control everything here & who own the networks, extract from users. Nuts. Fancy paying US$1200 for an iPhone then US$500 a month after that for data? That's the sort of package many Indonesians are tied to.

Bangkok this week though, True are advertising a Blackberry 8000 (which, seems to dominate SEA's Smartphone market) for about NZ$700, with a $20 a month unlimited data package.

There are a lot of people saying it's fake, I don't know if that's true or not yet.

If it's real, then it's still possible that it isn't what it looks like. What it looks like is basically a kidnapping, what it could possibly be is extraction of a plain clothes officer or informant.

What I'm seeing doesn't make sense though. I don't understand why anyone would be there in camo fatigues, and anyone wearing camo fatigues surely wouldn't be unarmed.

Ugh.

Regardless of the video's provenance, someone needs to make the guy chanting about the KKK shut the fuck up, what an idiot.

Little brother is watching.

Absolutely right. Cameras are cheap - and a pretty effective way to keep making things better.

Don't need to be an activist on the street to be effective either, open government data, easy access to legislation, access to our parliamentarians (many have blogs and actually engage with their readers), etc. Basically just trying to open up the sharing of information, keeping our eyes open, and always opening our mouths when we see anything that sucks.

It's all we can do, but it's all that it takes.

Bangkok this week though, True are advertising a Blackberry 8000 (which, seems to dominate SEA's Smartphone market) for about NZ$700, with a $20 a month unlimited data package.

Makes one wonder just why the fuck we let Vodafone & Telecom get away with the appalling packages they limit us with.